| DATE 7/18/2003 2:10 PM |
| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
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This is part of an occasional series by the Sanpete Country Travel and Utah Heritage Highway 89 Alliance on the people and places along U.S. Highway 89. TBSI Preserving Past, Future Along U.S. Highway 89 and Beyond |
| The Traditional Skills Building Institute (TBSI) at Snow College and the U.S. Highway 89 Alliance share a common goal: restoring and preserving pieces of the past. Over the past several years, the two have teamed up on several restoration projects along Utah’s Heritage Highway. Now, TBSI is taking its objective beyond the highway, branching out to reach Utah’s urban cities, its smallest communities, and even the rest of the world.This is all about furthering the art of traditional building skills, says Russ Mendenhall, TBSI director. Our goal is educating people on how to use these skills in preserving historic buildings and in new construction, which we accomplish through our hands-on workshops. If we can combine that goal with projects that benefit the highway and state, it’s a win-win situation for everyone.
TBSI has been holding workshops in Ephraim and the Sanpete County region, teaching skills such as stone work, brick laying, wood carving and stain glass making. Over the years, we’ve had a lot of people from other parts of the state express interest in the workshops, Mendenhall says. However, many of them said that they couldn t make it down to Ephriam, so we decided to take what we have to offer up to them. As a result, TBSI has been holding a series of workshops at the This Is The Place State Park in Salt Lake City to reach a broader audience. The workshops, which run for three days, involve instruction and hands-on experience using widely recognized craftsmen. They are designed for architects, builders, contractors, trades people, students, educators and homeowners. The next workshop, Traditional Furniture Making, is scheduled for July 31 – Aug. 2. Participants will learn traditional joinery techniques by using hand planes, chisels and saws to construct a pioneer furniture project. The workshop is being taught by Dale Peel of Peel Furniture Works in Mt. Pleasant. Next, TBSI plans to travel to the little-known ghost town of Grafton, Utah, near Zions National Park for a workshop on adobe restoration. The ghost town was the location shoot for parts of the film, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and will be the training ground for participants taking part in the unique workshop. TBSI workshops have also been held in Torrey, Utah, where students completed two stone benches. In addition, TBSI students traveled to Bacup, England, in March where they did masonry restoration work on a historical building and a stone wall. Students stayed with host families and studied the history and culture of the area. Along U.S. Highway 89, TBSI has been involved in the restoration of a church in Salina, where they did stone work, and they are considering planning a workshop in Centerfield on a church restoration project. It is a very interesting building, made of oolite stone, Mendenhall says. In Moroni, the group has been involved in the renovation and restoration of the Moroni Opera House. TBSI students also worked on the Spring City school house project, working on plaster work, moldings and masonry. All of these projects are fine examples of the type of outstanding work students are doing through TBSI, Mendenhall says. For more information on TBSI or upcoming workshops, call (435) 283-7324 or check out their web site: http://www.snow.edu/TBSI.
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| For more information Contact:Monte Bona Sanpete County Travel and Heritage Council (435) 462-2502 |
The unique landscape features a geological wonderland that has been the backdrop for feature films including; “Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid,” and “Jeremiah Johnson.” While traveling through the picturesque scenery, you might recognize a scene or two. Included in the heritage area is the birthplace of Utah outlaws, Butch Cassidy and Matt Warner. Matt was a lifelong friend and a gang member alongside of Butch. Many movies were filmed in the scenic Under the Rim District of the Mormon Pioneer National Heritage Area.
In the later part of the 1800s the Mormon pioneers began their great relocation to the west. They trekked 1,400 miles from Illinois to the Great Salt Lake. This mass-Exodus brought about colonization in Utah, Nevada, the southwest corner of Wyoming, the southeast corner of Idaho, southeast Oregon, and a large portion of southern and eastern California.
